Category Archives: weird

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? If you’re interested, you can see the previous WSMHO posts here, here and here.

Allison’s take:
If you’re familiar with Ray, then you know he has very distinct style. If you catch him at work he will be wearing grey slacks, a collared button up, ox blood winged tipped shoes, and possibly a tie. Outside of work is a different story. In his off time Ray typically wears either a super hero tshirt or western button up, a vest, jeans, and boots. Always boots. Specifically, snake skin boots. He’s been wearing boots for as long as we’ve been friends.
Another thing you may or may not know about Ray is that he’s thrifty. Because boots can be VERY expensive, he usually buys them gently used off ebay. I left that tidbit of information in this post so you wouldn’t think we’ve spent hundreds of dollars on each pair of these boots. We’re crazy, but not that kind of crazy.
A few weeks ago, while we were doing a little spring (winter?) closet cleaning, I counted no less than 9 pairs of boots. That didn’t include the pair on his feet, the pair in the living room or the pair under our bed.
You might be thinking “There’s got to be an explanation. Maybe Ray moonlights as a Florida cracker cowboy at night” but you’re wrong. He doesn’t own a ranch (but maybe one day!!) or hang with cattle ever. He works on computers at a bank and podcasts about super heroes. So, Ray having 10 + pairs of boots is weird, right?

Ray’s take: Okay guys, so I like boots. I wear boots a lot. Up until recently they were my everyday-all-day shoe of choice. And yes, I am partial to snake skin boots, I just like them. I do not feel like it is crazy or weird that I have 10+ pair of boots though. Girls have tons of shoes, but I’m not writing a “Weird Shit My Wife Owns, 33 pair of Ballerina Flats” post. For some reason that seems completely reasonable to people.
Anyway, why do I own so many boots? Well I wear a 12 1/2 in boots, and I Prefer Tony Lama boots. That’s not a combination you come across often in the gently-used market. So 2-3 pair of those boots are for future use. I haven’t started wearing them yet, but I found a good deal on them, and pulled the trigger. They are my spares right now.I don’t really have an explanation for the other 7 or so pair other than they all have a story. The pair on the middle row far left, were the first boots I started wearing. They were not snake skin, but they did belong to my dad. I wore them for years. Same row but to the far right were my wedding boots. I had them patched up and resoled specifically for our wedding. They were my first pair of snake skin boots, and very comfortable. The pair on the left on the bottom row are my Dragon Slayer boots, self explanatory of course. Top Right hand corner, I wore while in Guatemala, they have paint on them from where we helped paint some houses. Bottom right were my dress boots for a while.

So every boot tells a story, don’t it? So in conclusion, not weird.

Allison’s take x2 – I love him and I actually don’t care if he has lots and lots of boots. 🙂

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we’re pretty much celebrities is our tiny town of Lake City. Why, you ask? Well, our previous Weird Sh*t posts were featured in a local magazine (renamed to “Weird Stuff” haha)! This might seem ridiculous, but we get stopped all the time because of the article.
So, back by popular demand…Allison’s take: Ok, don’t get me wrong, I love music. I love listening to records. I love the sound quality from comes from vinyl. However, I think this record collections has gotten a little out of control. Collecting records isn’t exactly weird (especially with all the vinyl-hipsters of today), but having a collection this large IS weird! The pictures don’t even show all of them!
I clearly knew about the record collection before we got married, I guess I just didn’t realize how much space it would take up. Our entire sunroom is full of them! Ray’s Take: I LOVE music. I love old things. I also love finding good deals. So collecting records is like the perfect storm for me!
There are so many things I love about vinyl records, the music, the artwork, the ability they have to transport you to another time, how they can bookmark points in your life. I love the smell of vinyl, the feel of a new vinyl being put on a record player, the experience of doing nothing but listening to that record. Not cleaning and listening to a record, not reading and listening to a record, just listening.
I know I have a lot of records now, and my collecting has slowed a bit over the past two years, but I still enjoy the hunt and the joy in playing a new record!
Just having them around is a comfort to my soul.

With all that being said, since I have so many records, alliray.com is going to start having a new feature once a month (or whenever I get around to not being a bum and write them) called Ray’s Record Review (because we like alliteration). It won’t always be musical reviews, it will be more of a post about some vinyls that I’ve been enjoying lately.
See keep your eyes out for that!

As most of you know, I work in a public library. Keyword : public, meaning anyone can walk in, check out books and utilize our facilities. It also, apparently, means anyone can leave their junk wherever they want. It’s usually things like holographic bookmarks, mail, notebooks, newspapers, food, trash, etc. BUT, sometimes I find treasures.
Here are two of my favorites:
Angry note including the word “mines” found 8/2/12And creepy lady picture found in mid-May. It might be a wedding picture since the girl in the center is wearing white… but I really can’t tell.

Allison’s take: Where to start? Well, it’s giant, heavy, velvet and medieval. Did I mention it’s ridiculous and not exactly my aesthetic? Ray bought this while we were dating and at the time I thought it was kind of funny hanging on the wall in his tiny apartment. It’s a little (a lot) less funny now that it’s in our house. Also, we don’t even live in a castle…

Ray’s take: Oh wow! This gem. Ok, the story… I went to an auction with Dale Tompkins which was kind of a bust, but on the way home we found a yard sale. I noticed this right off and Dale said I should buy it (side note: I think sometimes Dale says stuff like this to be silly or as a joke, but of course I took it to heart and realized I needed to own it). I went over and saw that it was the one thing at the yard sale that had no price on it. When everything has a price except one item I kind of always assume it’s expensive. I mean lets be real, who would ever want to part with something so magnificent?! It’s solid wood so its really heavy and hand carved! Also, it has red velvet on it!!! I then went on and found a few more treasures at the sale. I asked how much they were asking for the glorious lion piece and they told me since I was already purchasing other items they would sell it to me for $15. A man cannot turn down a hand-carved, solid wood coat of arms WITH weapons for $15. So, that was the day the Lion with crossing swords on a red velvet field became the Hancock Crest.

I’m going to be honest, my husband owns a lot of weird sh*t. He lived on his own for about six years before we were married and apparently spent most of his time acquiring weird-o things. This is going to be an ongoing series on alliray, so get excited. Let’s start off with this gigantic ship painting:Allison’s take:
I mean, seriously? This painting isn’t the ugliest in the world, but it sure is the biggest. Where will one ever put it? Right now it lives in one of our upstairs bedrooms on the floor because we don’t have any wall space that’s big enough. When he lived in an apartment it took up an ENTIRE wall of his bedroom.Ray’s take:
I bought this painting at an auction. I like nautical themed paintings with ships in them a lot and I have several others. This one was just so large and majestic, so I waited all night during the auction and the auctioneer never tried to sell it. Near the end of the evening he asked if there was anything else around that people wanted to bid on (it was getting late by this point and a lot of people had left). I told one of the helpers that I was interested in the painting so the auctioneer put it up for bid and started it off at $500… I thought to myself “dear lord, i would never pay anything near that” so he kept getting lower and lower and lower and lower untill he finally said “ok $20? anyone want it for $20?” so i jumped at that! I lifted my bidding card, and the rest is history. I loaded it up in the back of my truck, got it home to my tiny apartment and put it up in my bedroom. It took up the whole wall and I felt like a king.